17 ms·

Honestly I think this is entirely counter-productive for anyone that's not mega-rich. If you're Warren Buffet, of course you'll have a thousand offers and prop

by tn890 6y ago

Honestly I think this is entirely counter-productive for anyone that's not mega-rich. If you're Warren Buffet, of course you'll have a thousand offers and propositions a day and you have to say no to most of them and find that one gem. If you're regular Joe (and, yes, that most likely includes YOU reading this) you can't afford to shut down most opportunities or you'll never get anywhere.

christophilus 6y ago
I don’t think that’s true. Almost every project I’ve been on had most of its major problems due to folks’ inability to say no. Most of the people in my life who are overworked and hurried are that way because they can’t say no. The happiest people I know have great boundaries and say no all the time. Anecdotal, but my experience has been that “no” is one of the most useful words in my vocabulary.
- bumby 6y ago
  I think the sentiment really comes down to prioritizing before trying to execute within the resource constraints. This can apply to any level and I see low-tier employees shooting themselves in the foot from a productivity standpoint because they have an inability to prioritize their efforts effectively
tinyhouse 6y ago
I disagree. We all have many opportunities to say no. You know how much time I spent working on projects that didn't go anywhere and were a complete waste of time and money? (not mine, my employer's). I didn't say no. My manager didn't say no. Their manager didn't say no. You may say that's part of being successful, many things fail but a few stick and make it big. That's true but often the writing is on the wall but people ignore it. One thing I do agree is that not everyone can say no. For example, if you're a software engineer in a big company, you might not have much say. That's why it's important to get yourself into a position where you have more control on the things you work on. Not easy but you don't need to be Buffet to achieve that.
nimblegorilla 6y ago
> If you're regular Joe (and, yes, that most likely includes YOU reading this) you can't afford to shut down most opportunities or you'll never get anywhere. Anyone with software development skills gets tons of low quality app ideas from friends and family. And tons of other opportunities from recruiters paying below market. It's hard walking away from a sort-of-ok opportunity when you don't have anything going on, but I've learned there are always more things coming up.
jfengel 6y ago
In general I think it's a bad idea to take advice from successful people. There's a thing that goes around, a piece by Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes[1], talking about how great it was to quit his safe job and become a cartoonist. Except... how many famous cartoonists are there? How many other people quit their advertising job and just failed? If each of their stories were circulated as much, would we see this swamped by a thousand heartbreaking memes instead? Doing what Warren Buffett does works very well for Warren Buffett. The odds are good that it won't work for you. "Choose the right things" is pretty vacuous advice. [1] https://highexistence.com/images/view/illustrated-advice-from-bill-watterson-creator-of-calvin-and-hobbes/ https://highexistence.com/images/view/illustrated-advice-fro...
- thehappypm 6y ago
  Bo Burnham says the same thing. He’s talented and taking advice from him is akin to following the advice of buying lottery tickets.
  - justinmeiners 6y ago
    Do you think being good at something and successfully selling or marketing your work is like buying a lottery ticket?
    - jfengel 6y ago
      Sometimes, yeah. Comedy is one such example: it gives huge rewards to a few celebrities, while a lot of other equally talented people just never manage to be in the right place at the right time. It's perhaps especially true for comedy. You can see it when you watch a comic on TV: they're much less funny than in person, because you're not surrounded by a lot of other laughing people. The same routine by the same person can get little more than snickers when done at somebody's open mic night -- unless somebody recognizes that they're famous. Celebrity reinforces itself. Burnham is very talented and I'm sure he worked like crazy to market his work. But he will also tell you the names of a hundred others who are equally talented and worked equally hard, but you've never heard of them. The market for celebrity is very fickle, heaping huge rewards on a few, but drop off rapidly for people who aren't in the hump of the long tail. Warren Buffett isn't profiting from celebrity in the same sense, but there's a similar effect where the biggest winners are lucky as well as smart. Their advice often doesn't take that into account, and it's important to measure that in your appetite for risk.
PaulHoule 6y ago
A picture of Warren Buffet is a "dog whistle" you see on Yahoo Finance and other web sites aimed at people of a "certain age". It's like the hypnotic induction (to make you connect to your identity as a consumer) that starts with talking about "our smartphones". For a long time I would wind up seeing Becky Quick interview Buffet a few times a year on CNBC, it got cringeworthy when his dementia got worse and he started to leer at her. (Becky Quick is a "babe") Once upon a time he was a genius investor, but he's not what he used to be and they don't have a successor in the works. For me, I deleted my LinkedIn account recently because it had brought a remarkable number of time-wasters into my life.
- eatbitseveryday 6y ago
  > when his dementia got worse Source? > don't have a successor in the works. Source?
ssully 6y ago
Just picturing how long I would last at my job if I just said no to every task I was assigned.
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
Between billboards, internet ads, radio commercials, spam, and telemarketing calls, I don't get a thousand offers a day, but I might get a hundred. Of course, it's easier to say no to most of those, since they're not actually things I want. They're just garbage offers. But even of the ones I want... There are many places offering to sell me lunch today, and there are several places where I'd be interested in eating lunch. I can only eat one lunch today, though. So I think we have the same thing, just with much smaller offers.

by tn890 6y ago

christophilus 6y ago

I don’t think that’s true. Almost every project I’ve been on had most of its major problems due to folks’ inability to say no. Most of the people in my life who are overworked and hurried are that way because they can’t say no. The happiest people I know have great boundaries and say no all the time. Anecdotal, but my experience has been that “no” is one of the most useful words in my vocabulary.

bumby 6y ago
I think the sentiment really comes down to prioritizing before trying to execute within the resource constraints. This can apply to any level and I see low-tier employees shooting themselves in the foot from a productivity standpoint because they have an inability to prioritize their efforts effectively

tinyhouse 6y ago

I disagree. We all have many opportunities to say no. You know how much time I spent working on projects that didn't go anywhere and were a complete waste of time and money? (not mine, my employer's). I didn't say no. My manager didn't say no. Their manager didn't say no. You may say that's part of being successful, many things fail but a few stick and make it big. That's true but often the writing is on the wall but people ignore it. One thing I do agree is that not everyone can say no. For example, if you're a software engineer in a big company, you might not have much say. That's why it's important to get yourself into a position where you have more control on the things you work on. Not easy but you don't need to be Buffet to achieve that.

nimblegorilla 6y ago

> If you're regular Joe (and, yes, that most likely includes YOU reading this) you can't afford to shut down most opportunities or you'll never get anywhere. Anyone with software development skills gets tons of low quality app ideas from friends and family. And tons of other opportunities from recruiters paying below market. It's hard walking away from a sort-of-ok opportunity when you don't have anything going on, but I've learned there are always more things coming up.

jfengel 6y ago

In general I think it's a bad idea to take advice from successful people. There's a thing that goes around, a piece by Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes[1], talking about how great it was to quit his safe job and become a cartoonist. Except... how many famous cartoonists are there? How many other people quit their advertising job and just failed? If each of their stories were circulated as much, would we see this swamped by a thousand heartbreaking memes instead? Doing what Warren Buffett does works very well for Warren Buffett. The odds are good that it won't work for you. "Choose the right things" is pretty vacuous advice. [1] https://highexistence.com/images/view/illustrated-advice-from-bill-watterson-creator-of-calvin-and-hobbes/ https://highexistence.com/images/view/illustrated-advice-fro...

thehappypm 6y ago
Bo Burnham says the same thing. He’s talented and taking advice from him is akin to following the advice of buying lottery tickets.
- justinmeiners 6y ago
  Do you think being good at something and successfully selling or marketing your work is like buying a lottery ticket?
  - jfengel 6y ago
    Sometimes, yeah. Comedy is one such example: it gives huge rewards to a few celebrities, while a lot of other equally talented people just never manage to be in the right place at the right time. It's perhaps especially true for comedy. You can see it when you watch a comic on TV: they're much less funny than in person, because you're not surrounded by a lot of other laughing people. The same routine by the same person can get little more than snickers when done at somebody's open mic night -- unless somebody recognizes that they're famous. Celebrity reinforces itself. Burnham is very talented and I'm sure he worked like crazy to market his work. But he will also tell you the names of a hundred others who are equally talented and worked equally hard, but you've never heard of them. The market for celebrity is very fickle, heaping huge rewards on a few, but drop off rapidly for people who aren't in the hump of the long tail. Warren Buffett isn't profiting from celebrity in the same sense, but there's a similar effect where the biggest winners are lucky as well as smart. Their advice often doesn't take that into account, and it's important to measure that in your appetite for risk.

PaulHoule 6y ago

A picture of Warren Buffet is a "dog whistle" you see on Yahoo Finance and other web sites aimed at people of a "certain age". It's like the hypnotic induction (to make you connect to your identity as a consumer) that starts with talking about "our smartphones". For a long time I would wind up seeing Becky Quick interview Buffet a few times a year on CNBC, it got cringeworthy when his dementia got worse and he started to leer at her. (Becky Quick is a "babe") Once upon a time he was a genius investor, but he's not what he used to be and they don't have a successor in the works. For me, I deleted my LinkedIn account recently because it had brought a remarkable number of time-wasters into my life.

eatbitseveryday 6y ago
> when his dementia got worse Source? > don't have a successor in the works. Source?

ssully 6y ago

Just picturing how long I would last at my job if I just said no to every task I was assigned.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

Between billboards, internet ads, radio commercials, spam, and telemarketing calls, I don't get a thousand offers a day, but I might get a hundred. Of course, it's easier to say no to most of those, since they're not actually things I want. They're just garbage offers. But even of the ones I want... There are many places offering to sell me lunch today, and there are several places where I'd be interested in eating lunch. I can only eat one lunch today, though. So I think we have the same thing, just with much smaller offers.